14 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Sports Mascots

Thanks to pioneers like Mr. Met in the 1960s, few sports teams have felt complete without the presence of a mascot. These larger-than-life animated characters rally hometown crowds, work with charities, and can occasionally make baseball seem exciting.

To get a better look at what goes on under those mounds of fur and sweat, mental_floss spoke to several current and former mascots about the tricks of the trade, from scaring small animals to how they fit their massive frames through doorways. Here’s a little peek behind the mask.

1. THEY CAN GET FLEAS.

“This happened while I was in college,” says Erin Blank, a former mascot for the Detroit Tigers and a trainer with Keystone Mascots. “A rival school had a situation where their mascot costume got infested with fleas. They actually dipped it in a flea bath. All of the fur fell off. And they only had one costume.” The faux fur used in many costumes also leads mascots to use pet grooming tools to keep their coats clean and shiny.

2. THEY’RE NOT ALLOWED TO TALK.

Mascots are masters of gestures that need to be big enough to be noticed from the rafters. Since vocalizing can't travel far, most major mascots abide by a no-talking policy. “I never spoke when I was in character,” says Kevin Vanderkolk, who spent 14 years portraying Bango for the Milwaukee Bucks and now owns the SOAR Adventure Tower near Nashville. “You don’t want to humanize him.” Instead, Vanderkolk hoped for a lot of yes-or-no questions or mimed a response.

3. THEY LIKE A GOOD VODKA SOAK.

While costumes have come a long way from the suffocating and heavy designs of decades past, there’s still no getting around the fact that many of them aren’t machine-washable. To try and fight off the permanent funk, many mascots use a tip first recommended by Bonnie Erickson, a former Muppet Workshop employee and creator of several legendary mascots including the Phillie Phanatic: a spray bottle full of vodka.

“That’s still applicable,” says Blank. “You want to kill the bacteria. Some mascots also use Listerine, but the problem there is the added flavor. The color can ruin fur.” (An alternative for the smell is Fur Breeze, a dog cologne that apparently works on fake fur.)

4. THERE’S A SECRET TO GETTING THROUGH DOORS.

Many mascots cut a recognizable figure thanks to massive heads and wide frames. The problem? The world was made for people with human dimensions, not 85-inch hips. Dan Meers, who performs as KC Wolf for the Kansas City Chiefs, let us in on an old mascot trick. “The hips are basically Hula Hoops,” he says. “You just pull up on the left and push down on the right and you can get through doors.”

5. THEY SOMETIMES NEED A COLLEGE DEGREE.

There’s no clear and singular path to becoming a mascot. Some are former gymnasts; others come from a theater or dance background. According to Blank, several pro teams are looking to formalize the hiring process by looking for mascots with college degrees in sports marketing. “The mascots are responsible for seeking sponsorships for teams,” she says. “It helps to pay their salary.”

6. THEY CAN UPSET FANS.

Despite the histrionics of Tommy Lasorda, most mascots get along with coaches just fine. The real adversaries can be fans. “Complaints never come from coaches,” Meers says. “It’s from the guy sitting behind someone who wanted to help me propose to his girlfriend, and I was blocking his view of two plays. He couldn’t see around me. That’s why we’re always moving and staying active.”

7. THEY FORGE THEIR AUTOGRAPHS.

Because no performer takes up permanent residence in a suit, it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense to have them sign their “name” organically. Instead, mascots practice a kind of house style, using exemplars from previous actors in order to emulate the autograph of the character. “Some teams have developed very specific signatures for mascots,” Blank says. “It’s something that gets passed on down through the years.”

8. THEY CAN GET REALLY HURT.

As Bango, former gymnast Vanderkolk bounced off trampolines, did a back-flip off a massive extension ladder, and occasionally played with fire. It was all enough to get him on the injured list nearly as often as the players. “I’ve had a torn ACL, some pretty significant ankle and shoulder injuries, hand injuries. It was a big factor in my retirement," he says. Once, when an injury confined him to the sidelines, Vanderkolk rolled out in costume in a wheelchair. “Any time I was hurt, Bango was hurt. You want to keep the integrity of the character.”

9. FOOTBALL MIGHT BE A BETTER GIG THAN BASEBALL.

“It’s simple math,” Meers says. “I started out working for the St. Louis Cardinals out of college before the Chiefs contacted me. I could either do 81 home games in baseball or 10 in football. It didn’t take me long to decide.” Personal appearances, however, are a grind either way: between store openings, parades, and other events, Meers figures he makes up to 500 drop-ins a year.

10. THEY SOMETIMES LIKE TO SCARE DOGS.

PETA may not approve, but sometimes the temptation to annoy a dog while in a giant anthropomorphic animal suit proves irresistible. “I used to love making dogs bark and freaking them out,” Blank says. “I get it can be a little bit of harassment, so I don’t do it as much as I used to.”

11. THEY HAVE BIRTHDAY PARTIES.

Mascots rarely meet one another, with the exception of their birthdays: Pro teams often use a character’s birth date as an excuse to throw a public relations party, inviting four to six mascots from elsewhere in the league. “The teams embrace it as a marketing platform,” Vanderkolk says. In 2015, the Phillie Phanatic had an on-field celebration that featured a giant cake, a visiting Philadelphia Eagles mascot named Swoop, and an inflatable iguana that appeared to devour the umpire.

12. THEY GET PAID TO BE PATIENT.

If a normal person can walk a path in five minutes, it will take a mascot more like 30: Everyone wants to stop them, take a picture, or grab a hug. That’s part of the job, but Meers says the problem starts when people treat them like plush animals. “Mascots do not like having their tail pulled,” he says. As for hugs: no problem, but be aware their line of sight may line up with the costume’s neck. “Every now and then, I’ll catch a shot in the nose.”

13. THEY’RE NOT ALWAYS A FAN OF THEIR OWN TEAM.

“You don’t necessarily need to be a fan,” Blank says, “but you should check what you put on social media.” In February 2015, Darnell Enrique, a.k.a. Franklin the mascot, was caught ripping his Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia fans in general in messages that were excavated from tweets a few years prior to his hiring. On the Philadelphia Eagles: “WORSE [sic] TEAM EVER hhahaha.”

14. THEY DO WEDDINGS.

As part of their personal appearance rotations, mascots are often invited to private parties like birthdays and wedding receptions. As KC Wolf, Meers has walked three brides down the aisle. “I throw on a tuxedo over the outfit,” he says. “At the reception, it’s a half-hour of dancing with bridesmaids, taking pictures, and hanging out with grandma.”

In all of Arnold Schwarzenegger's film oeuvre, Jingle All the Way might just be the one that most exhibits the ugliness of humanity. Set on a fevered Christmas Eve brimming with desperate last-minute shoppers, Schwarzenegger's Howard Langston and Sinbad's postal worker character Myron Larabee find themselves battling one another to make themselves look good to their sons by getting their hands on the elusive Turbo Man action figure. The comedic genius Phil Hartman; Rita Wilson; future young Anakin Skywalker, Jake Lloyd; Laraine Newman; Harvey Korman; Martin Mull; Curtis Armstrong; and Chris Parnell were the other willing participants in this cult comedy, directed by Brian Levant. Here are some things you might not have known about the contemporary holiday classic.

1. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER WAS ABLE TO PLAY THE LEAD BECAUSE OF A DELAY ON A PLANET OF THE APES REMAKE.

Arnold Schwarzenegger signed up to star in the Apes remake in March of 1994, but 20th Century Fox rejected multiple scripts for the movie, including one co-written by Chris Columbus (Gremlins, The Goonies). Columbus left the project in late 1995, and Schwarzenegger followed him soon after, freeing him to sign up for Jingle All the Way, produced by Columbus, in February 1996. Fox's Planet of the Apes reboot found its way into theaters in 2001, starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Tim Burton.

2. SINBAD THOUGHT HE SCREWED UP THE AUDITION.

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Filming was delayed so that Sinbad could follow through on his commitment to travel to Bosnia with Hillary Clinton. Even though Columbus agreed to wait for him, the comedian still thought he "messed up" his audition and told his manager-brother he was going to quit show business.

3. OFFICER HUMMELL WAS INITIALLY WRITTEN AS A WOMAN.

Though the role of Officer Hummell was written for a woman, the part went to Robert Conrad. Conrad's explanation was that the producers "wanted someone who could pull up next to Arnold and tell him to pull over and he pulls over."

4. IT WAS CHRIS PARNELL'S FIRST MOVIE.

The future SNL star played the toy store clerk. "Well, it was my first movie role, and I didn't know how they typically shot scenes," Parnell admitted in a Reddit AMA. "So I had to laugh a lot, and I sort of spent all of my laughing energy in the wider takes, so by the time we got to the close-up shots, it was a real struggle to keep that going."

5. MARTIN MULL STAYED ON SET FOR OVER TWO WEEKS LONGER THAN HE WAS SUPPOSED TO.

Mull (KQRS D.J. a.k.a. Mr. Ponytail Man) was told it would just be a one- to two-day shoot for him. Unfortunately, his part had to be shot on a rainy day, and it didn't rain in Minneapolis for two and a half weeks.

6. PHIL HARTMAN MADE UP A BACKSTORY FOR HIS CHARACTER.

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Hartman (Ted Maltin) was probably joking for the film's official production notes, but you never know. "Ted is a guy who sued his employer for headaches caused by toner fumes and now hangs around the neighborhood and helps all the housewives," Hartman said. He also offered a take on how he was kind of being pigeonholed in Hollywood when he added, "Ted's another weasel to add my list of weasels."

7. HARTMAN ENTERTAINED HIS BORED YOUNG CO-STARS.

To keep young E.J. De la Pena (Johnny Maltin) and Jake Lloyd (Jamie Langston) from getting bored shooting a car scene all day, Hartman improvised songs designed to bring kids to hysterics. One tune contained the lyrics “You make my butt shine, the more you kiss it, the more it shines! The clock is ticking, so keep on licking, oh how you make my buttocks shine!”

"When you’re an 8 year old hearing that kind of potty humor, it was hilarious!" De la Pena remembered. "And we had a lot of fun."

8. JAMES BELUSHI HAD EXPERIENCE PLAYING SANTA BEFORE.

Belushi sort of trained to portray the Mall of America Santa in the movie by playing Kris Kringle for four years in "about 20" different homes, according to his estimation.

9. SHOOTING BEGAN IN MID-APRIL.

The Minneapolis/St.Paul areas were chosen because the producers figured they had the longest winter. But they also filmed in Los Angeles' Universal Studios for the big parade over a three week span, where it was typical hot California weather on the verge of summer. Sinbad remembered it was 100 degrees on the days when he wore the Dementor costume, and the water in his helmet had started to boil.

10. THE REAL TURBO MAN DIDN'T SWEAT.

Daniel Riordan's Turbo Man suit ensured he wouldn't have trouble with the scorching heat. He was wearing a vest underneath used by race car drivers. "They're very thin membrane vests that are filled with small, plastic tubing that's tightly coiled, back and forth, and they run cold water through it," Riordan explained. "So when they run it, it's like this cold water right up against your body and it was amazing. The sensation was fantastic."

11. TURBO MAN FIGURES WERE SOLD AT WAL-MART.

200,000 were originally produced and sold at 2,300 Wal-Mart shops for $25. They would have made more but, as Fox’s president of licensing and merchandising explained to Entertainment Weekly, there were only six and a half months to produce and promote Turbo Man toys, and it usually takes "well over a year."

12. THEY ALMOST SOLD DEMENTOR DOLLS TOO.

Sinbad recalled that the studio didn't sell Dementor action figures even though they tested high during research. "I had a prototype of the doll but they said 'give it back, we'll get you the real one when it comes out,'" Sinbad said." ...And dude, it NEVER came out!" Sinbad told Redditers his theory: "I think that they didn't want the competition between Turbo Man and my doll."

13. SOME PARENTS HAD ALCOHOL-RELATED COMPLAINTS AFTER TEST SCREENINGS.

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Schwarzenegger and Sinbad talking at a bar over some alcohol, and the fact that reindeer also imbibed in beer, were among some of the problems mothers and other early viewers took issue with.

14. THE FILMMAKERS WERE SUED FOR PLAGIARISM, AND LOST.

Randy Kornfield penned the official script, but high school teacher Brian Alan Webster alleged his Could This Be Christmas? script was very similar. The publishing firm that had the rights to Webster's script won a $19 million lawsuit from 20th Century Fox, but the ruling was overturned in 2004. Webster's screenplay was about “the quest of a Caucasian mother attempting to obtain a hard-to-get action figure toy as a Christmas gift for her son. In the course of this pursuit, she competes with an African-American woman, similarly seeking to give the action figure doll as a Christmas gift.”

15. THERE WAS A SEQUEL STARRING LARRY THE CABLE GUY.

None of the original cast members nor characters returned in the straight-to-DVD Jingle All the Way 2 (2014). It was produced by 20th Century Fox and WWE Studios and featured wrestler Santino Marella. Sinbad expressed incredulity when a Redditer inquired if he was asked to return for it. "What they are doing a new version without me! Ain't gonna work!"

Additional Sources:

Schaefer, Stephen: "Sinbad leaps at the chance to go postal in Jingle All the Way," December 6, 1996; Des Moines Register

It’s often said that the love of money is the root of all evil. Wall Street could have easily turned this sentiment into a tagline. A gripping financial thriller, the Oliver Stone classic is a cautionary tale whose message is every bit as relevant today as it was when it was released 30 years ago today.

“As a director, he really tests you,” Douglas said of Stone. Around two weeks after shooting had started, Stone showed up at the actor’s trailer and asked “Are you on drugs? Because you look like you’ve never acted before in your life.” Mortified, Douglas took a look at some footage they’d already shot. Yet, after diligently reviewing it, he could find nothing wrong with his performance. “I came back to Oliver and said … ‘I think it’s okay,” Douglas remembers. “Yeah, it is, isn’t it?” Stone replied.

Eventually, Douglas wised up to his boss’s overly critical act. “Basically, what he wanted was to ratchet up that much more nastiness in Gordon Gekko,” Douglas explained. “And he was willing … for me to hate him for the rest of that movie just to bring it up a little more.”

2. WALL STREET WON BOTH AN OSCAR AND A RAZZIE.

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Douglas’s cold portrayal of the unscrupulous Gekko netted him an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1988. On the other hand, critics were thoroughly unimpressed by leading lady Daryl Hannah, who took home a Worst Supporting Actress Razzie.

3. GORDON GEKKO’S FAMOUS PHONE WEIGHED TWO POUNDS.

In one pivotal scene, Gekko rings Bud with a state-of-the-art mobile communication device. Specifically, it’s a Motorola DynaTac 8000X. Released in 1983, this brick-shaped cell phone was 13 inches long, weighed two pounds, and cost the equivalent of $8,806 in modern dollars. During the 2010 sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the anachronistic gadget returned for a quick sight gag.

4. CHARLIE SHEEN CHOSE TO HAVE HIS REAL FATHER PORTRAY HIS FICTIONAL ONE.

“It was interesting having my dad play my dad,” Sheen said on the DVD's “making of” documentary. Wall Street’s most dramatic arc revolves around Bud and Carl Fox, who were played by Charlie and Martin Sheen, respectively. Stone had built a strong working relationship with the former on the set of 1986’s Platoon. So when the time came to cast Carl, he had the younger Sheen make the call, asking “Do you want Jack Lemmon or do you want your father?” “Oh, Jack Lemmon’s a genius,” the actor said, “but my dad’s my dad and he’s kind of a genius, too.”

5. SCREENWRITER STANLEY WEISER COULDN'T FIND INSPIRATION IN EITHER CRIME AND PUNISHMENT OR THE GREAT GATSBY.

Before the writer could get started, Stone gave him a little homework. Originally, the film was conceived as “Crime and Punishment on Wall Street.” When Weiser was brought aboard one fateful Friday, Stone told him to read Dostoyevsky’s novel over the weekend. “Not having taken an Evelyn Wood Speed Reading class, I went to UCLA and purchased the Cliffs Notes,” Weiser wrote in 2008.

But the literary exercise proved futile. “On Monday, I explained to Oliver that the paradigm for that masterwork would not mesh well with the story we wanted to tell.” In a flash, Stone hit him with another assignment. “Okay,” he ordered, “read The Great Gatsby tonight, and see if we can mine something out of it.” This time, Weiser simply rented the 1974 movie adaptation. Once again, though, inspiration eluded him.

Wall Street as we know it didn’t really start to take shape until after a change in tactic: When Gatsby led him nowhere, Weiser read everything about finance that he could track down and, along with Stone, “spent three weeks visiting brokerage houses, interviewing investors and getting a feel for the Weltanschauung of Wall Street.”

6. PARTS OF THE MOVIE WERE SHOT AT THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE DURING WORKING HOURS.

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Permission was secured with the help of Kenneth Lipper, a longtime Wall Street insider who also served as New York City's deputy mayor from 1982 to 1985. For the film, Stone brought him on board as the chief technical advisor.

7. TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE FILM’S RELEASE, THERE WAS A MAJOR WALL STREET CRASH IN REAL LIFE.

Historians now call it “Black Monday.” On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by a staggering 22.6 percent. It was the largest single-day stock market decline of all time, with $500 billion suddenly going up in smoke. Wall Street would hit theaters on December 11, leading conspiracy theorists to wonder if Stone had seen the crisis coming and made his movie to exploit it.

“I did not foresee the crash, as some people say, because if I had, I would have made a lot of money,” Stone quipped.

8. GEKKO WAS BASED ON THREE BIG-NAME FINANCIERS.

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“If you need a friend, get a dog,” Gekko advises his young protégé. This quote was adapted from a remark that corporate raider Carl Icahn once made (which he had cribbed from Harry Truman). In 1985, Icahn became a notorious figure by taking over TWA airlines under the pretense of making it more profitable only to sell off its assets for his own gain. Gekko, no doubt, would’ve approved.

Wall Street’s charismatic antagonist also took cues from Asher Edelman, a financier and major league art enthusiast. Another source of inspiration was arbiter Ivan Boesky, who confessed to illegal insider trading in 1986 and ended up in jail in 1988 (more about him later).

9. STONE’S FATHER WAS A STOCKBROKER.

A survivor of the Great Depression, Louis Stone had a huge influence on his cinematically-inclined son. “The main motivation to make Wall Street was my father,” the director admitted. “He always said there were no good business movies, because the businessman was always the villain.” In the end, Wall Street was dedicated to the elder Stone, who passed away two years before its release.

10. GEKKO’S BIG LINE IS NUMBER 57 ON THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE’S TOP 100 MOVIE QUOTES LIST.

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good” finished just ahead of “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer” from The Godfather: Part II. Gekko might as well have been quoting Boesky: At a 1985 commencement address given at UC Berkeley, the trader said “Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”

Newsweek later reported on the speech—and made a telling observation. “The strangest thing, when we come to look back,” the magazine argued, “will not just be that Ivan Boesky could say that at a business school graduation, but that it was greeted with laughter and applause.”